Church sues Colorado town to be able to shelter homeless in trailers, work ‘mandated by God’

CASTLE ROCK, Colorado — Behind a church surrounded by rolling prairie on the edge of this Colorado town sits a donated camper that was Joe Ridenour’s home for a year after he lost his job during the pandemic.

Living in the RV meant he didn’t have to return to his hometown of Kansas City, where he feared he would relapse into methamphetamine use.

“Without this trailer and this church, I wouldn’t be alive. The drugs would have eaten me up,” said Ridenour, who now works a maintenance job at the county fairgrounds and rents a room from a friend he met at The Rock Church.

Last year, the city of Castle Rock ordered the nondenominational evangelical church to stop offering lodging in the RV and another camper because of zoning violations. The church responded by suing the city, which is located between Denver and Colorado Springs.

Following the arguments of other churches trying to help the homeless, Oregon In Ohio, the church in Colorado argues that helping people in need is a religious activity protected by the Constitution.

The lawsuit is filled with references to the Bible’s exhortations to believers to care for the needy. It also notes that surrounding Douglas County, one of the wealthiest in the United States, has no other homeless shelters.

The church grounds are not zoned for residential use and regulations prohibit RV living in Castle Rock.

On Friday, a federal judge ruled that the church can continue to temporarily shelter homeless people in the RVs while the lawsuit is pending.

The city, which has said it will “rigorously defend the zoning authority of communities,” declined to comment on Friday’s ruling. In court, the city argued that the church could find other ways to help the homeless, such as opening up members’ homes to them or buying a property to house them in an area zoned for residential use.

Earlier this year, the church had to deny a request to allow a mother and three children under the age of 7 who were living in a car to stay in one of the trailers, Pastor Mike Polhemus said.

“The word of God commands us to love and protect those who are struggling and poor,” Polhemus said. “That is our mandate. And we believe that this actually goes beyond the codes of the county or the city or whatever codes there are, that these are things that are mandated by God.”

Nearly a decade ago, the church began offering shelter to homeless women and children in its gymnasium one night a week as part of a church network that took turns opening its doors to them. In 2018, the church began allowing homeless men to stay in the trailers after interviews and background checks. The church network stopped reaching out to homeless families last year, and The Rock could only offer shelter to people in the trailers.

After Friday’s ruling, Jeremy Dys, senior attorney for the First Liberty Institute, which represents the church, said: “I’m sure they’ll welcome people back into the RVs as soon as possible.”

The lawsuit relies on both the church’s freedom of religion under the First Amendment and a federal law intended to protect houses of worship from discrimination in zoning decisions.

The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, passed by Congress in 2000 with bipartisan support, prohibits governments from imposing land-use regulations that impose a substantial burden on religious exercise without a compelling reason to do so. The law has helped a wide range of faiths build or expand houses of worship, but it has also been invoked in legal battles over efforts to help the homeless.

Before The Rock filed the lawsuit, a church in Bryan, Ohio, has filed a similar federal lawsuit this year when the pastor was criminally charged with sheltering homeless people there. Church and city officials are trying to resolve the lawsuit, which also alleges the city violated a 2000 federal law.

Two other recent lawsuits also alleged violations of that law.

In March, a federal judge ruled that the city of Brookings on Oregon’s southern coast could not restrict a church’s meal services for the homeless. The lawsuit by St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church argued that an ordinance limiting the program to two days a week and requiring a permit also violated the church’s right to free exercise of religion.

Last year, a Christian nonprofit that was punished and threatened with prosecution in the Southern California city of Santa Ana for feeding the homeless settled its lawsuit against the city after the Ministry of Justice has spoken out.

Lauren Langer, a Los Angeles attorney who represents cities in land-use lawsuits, says that lawsuits between houses of worship and municipalities over homeless care are common, but they can be costly and lengthy.

“Even if the church wins, it’s still a long way to get there,” she said.

Some communities and churches in California have taken a different approach, forming partnerships to set up places where people who live in their cars can park overnight while also providing services such as restrooms, trash collection and security, she said.

Sonia Moran, who lives with her husband and two sons in a house adjacent to the Castle Rock church property, wasn’t initially concerned when she learned it was housing homeless people in the trailer. But that changed after it proposed building an affordable housing development on the 54-acre (22-hectare) site.

She does not believe the homes are really intended for teachers and care workers, as the church claims, and fears the development will attract residents who could increase crime in her quiet, safe neighborhood.

“How can we trust them when they can’t even adhere to their current zoning and land use obligations right now?” said Moran, who also believes the church may be trying to make a profit from the project.

Polhemus denies that. The former civil engineer who worked in real estate development in Houston before succeeding his father as pastor of the church, said providing housing for employees is not the kind of project that is profitable.

Moran also said she doesn’t believe Castle Rock has a homeless problem and that the church should focus on a place like Denver that does. The county, for its part, has donated $1.1 million to build a shelter 30 miles away in Aurora that can house at least five homeless people from the county.

Before living in the church RV, Ridenour slept in his truck in a Target parking lot, stayed temporarily at motels or at a friend’s house. He said he lost his job in June 2020 after his truck broke down while he was driving to Denver.

The church put the skilled carpenter to work making woodwork in the hall. He said the money he earned helped him pay off debts and buy clothes for job interviews, and it also made him feel like he was contributing to the community.

“They showed me my worth, which I had lost,” Ridenour said.

Now he is preparing to move back to Kansas City, feeling he is finally strong enough to return.

“God made this a journey for me so I could be with my family and my children again, and it has completely changed me,” he said.